


darktown

by shadoedseptmbr



Series: Kirkwall Year One [3]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Darktown, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27591467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadoedseptmbr/pseuds/shadoedseptmbr
Summary: kirkwall year one ficlet, a rogue about her business
Series: Kirkwall Year One [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/296681
Kudos: 4





	darktown

Darktown isn’t.

Isn’t dark. Isn’t a town. 

Aeryn has walked through towns, happy ones and fearful. Towns emptied of people and burning. She smelled the burning still even in the fetid stink of the sewers. Nothing covered it, not the fishtail stew on the fire or the rotting straw strewn about to soak up damp. 

Busy, bustling happy towns, though. Lanes with people strolling along, women with baskets men with carts children towing wagons and dogs.

Wash water tossed out the backdoor to water a rosebush. She still has those memories, as distant and false as they seem now.

Roses don’t grow in Darktown though mold does. And spindleroot. 

Spindleroot for sorrow. 

It isn’t _dark_ here., just murky with smoke and fog. People huddle around fires, smoke reflects flickering light and fearful voices. Shafts of light force their way through the cracks in the ceiling. Hoarded rushlights illuminate corners. 

Songs, scraps of Chant, lullabies, ridiculous tavern ditties sung by drunken, heartbroken refugees in familiar accents. Those are light, too. But she walks past the singers quickly, even the one with that peculiar Northern Marcher accent.

Aeryn doesn’t want to let the songs in, either. She’d rather it stayed dark for the task she’s set tonight, her bloody work paid in silver. 

Leave the light for Mother and Beth up on the surface, she’ll buy them candles with the coin.


End file.
